Interests

Sony announced the official release dates for the PS4 in NA/Europe and South America at Gamescom:
29th November, 2013 in Europe including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
*edit by Graham_S 21st Nov 2013, I am quoting Moz's friends list post here, by request*
Buying games from US storefront
http://www.nowgamer.com/ps4-vs-xbox-one-game-dvr-review/
Launch Window (Launch to 31st Dec 2013) games lineup - 15 Retail games and 18 Download-Only games:
Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag (Blu-ray/digital)
Basement Crawl (digital)
Battlefield 4 (Blu-ray/digital)
Blacklight (digital)
Call of Duty: Ghosts (Blu-ray/digital)
Contrast (digital)
DC Universe Online (digital)
Doki-Doki Universe (digital)
#DriveClub (Blu-ray/digital)
FIFA 14 (Blu-ray/digital)
Flower (digital)
Hohokum (digital)
Just Dance 2014 (Blu-ray/digital)
Killzone: Shadow Fall (Blu-ray/digital)
Knack (Blu-ray/digital)
Lego Marvel Superheroes (Blu-ray/digital)
Madden NFL 25 (Blu-ray/digital)
Minecraft (digital)
N++ (digital)
NBA Live (Blu-ray/digital)
NBA 2K14 (Blu-ray/digital)
Need for Speed: Rivals (Blu-ray/digital)
Pinball Arcade (digital)
Planetside 2 (digital)
Pool Nation Extreme (digital)
ResoGun (digital)
Skylanders: Swap Force (Blu-ray/digital)
Super Motherload (digital)
The Playroom (preinstalled)
Tiny Brains (digital)
Warframe (digital)
War Thunder (digital)
Watch_Dogs (Blu-ray/digital)
Update courtesy of verbs:
Sony unveiled the first hardware specifications of its PlayStation 4 today, promising "supercharged PC architecture," an X86 processor and 8GB of GDDR5 unified system memory WTF. It's coming "holiday 2013."
The Controller!
PS4 Controller Issues FAQ
Touchpad, Options and Share buttons, headphone jack, speaker, better triggers/sticks.
Cool Shit!
Suspend/Resume - Stop your game and put the PS4 into a low power state, pick up immediately where you left off when you come back.
Share - Post screenshots and video from your play sessions. It looked like you could wind back through your last ten minutes of gameplay, edit/trim it down and upload it. They did this onstage with Killzone: Shadow Fall.
Video Streaming - Stream your game out live to other users on the PS4 or ustream. People watching can give you tips like "Dude Look Out!" and even take control of your game temporarily to get you past a tough section.
Gakai Being Fast - The plan is to be able to select a demo and instantly begin streaming it. You'll also be able to start playing games while they download.
The Games!
Killzone: Shadow Fall:
Driveclub:
inFAMOUS: Second Son:
The Witness:
Deep Down (working title, set in the Dragon's Dogma universe):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9UmHm9HA3c
Watch Dogs:
Tech Demos!
Media Molecule
Quantic Dream's Old Man Face
Havok Physics Thing
Other Bits!
Also PlaystationEU's twitter are pretty sure backwards compatibility is coming via their cloud service and not at all qualifying it in "eventually"s like Dave Perry did onstage.
Controller stuff from Morrius / Moz:
Has this stuff been posted yet? I can't see it. If it has, instead of negging me, just tell me and I'll remove the post.
Some dashboard stuff from Moz:
#
Love it.
One thing I noticed, it appears to show a user streaming picture-in-picture, showing their gameplay AND their face via the new camera at the same time. Don't think they've mentioned that yet
Is it wrong that I'm most excited about hearing the startup sound for the first time?!
It looks quite a lot like big picture mode too.
Original post, rumoured specs etc:

This is currently 88 on Metacritic and Eurogamer have given it 10/10. It's also highly replayable so I think it warrants its own thread.
It's based on the indie PC game and is essentially a rough cross between Indiana Jones, Mario and a Roguelike.
It's out today and I can't wait to play it. I'm thinking of getting a fightpad or one of the new silver pads with the improved D-pad. Can anyone say which is the better option?
I'm expecting glowing impressions throughout the day so I can get more excited while I wait for my mum to pick me up. Don't let me down lads.

https://www.vg247.com/2017/08/02/all-the-persona-news-from-todays-livestream-persona-5-dancing-star-night-persona-3-dancing-moon-night-persona-q2/
Okay, there was no way they could ever match the hype of the P5 reveal stream (which teased Ultimax, Q, Dancing and P5) but this is good news for fans of those series. Me, I don't own a 3DS (or care about EO gameplay) and I still haven't played P4D, but they seem like perfect sequel and spin-off fodder. (I would have loved a new Arena though, grumble grumble...)
P3 Dancing trailer:
P5 Dancing trailer:
PQ2 teaser site

I can't see a proper thread for this, which is criminal because it's ace. If there is a thread, I apologise. Go go thread-merge rangers. What is it? Guacamelee is a 2D Metroidvania by Drinkbox, who previously made "Tales From Space: About A Blob" and "Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack!". But what is it? It's a game where you run around a "Day of the dead" (think Grim Fandango) themed world as a brawny luchador wearing a mystical luchador mask, smashing the shit out of skeletons, engaging in platforming sections and chuckling at millions of videogame references dotted around the levels, whilst ogling the lovely colourful artstyle. The game is quest driven, with areas locked off by ability gates as you'd expect. You can level up your stats by collecting money from enemies, and you gain new abilities by visiting a goat-man... thing. It has cool music. What does it look like? Kind of like this: Uhh, is there a trailer or anything? I don't pay all this money for broadband just to look at stills. Yes, there is a trailer:
Alright, what's wrong with it? Well, I'm only about 90 minutes in, but I can see the internet memes which keep popping up annoying some people. But they're normally pretty funny and "in-world", here's an example. What's this about videogame references? Guacamelee is stuffed with them. Spotting them all is a game in itself. Here are a couple of examples. Yeah, alright mate, does it play well? Yes. The gameplay is tight, fun and solid. Both the platforming and the brawling are polished and well designed. How much is it? If you have PS Plus, it's currently £7.99. Otherwise it's £9.99. How big is it? The Vita download is under 400mb. Not sure about the PS4 (edit: PS3 I mean, lol), but should be the same, it appears to be the same package you download for both. How does crossplay work? You get the PS3 and PSV version, whichever you initially buy. You can transfer your savegame between both at the touch of a button. Is there multiplayer? There's local co-op. It works a bit like NSMB. One person can play on the PS3 and the other on the PSV, if you want. What were the scores like? Gamer Limit - 10/10 PSN Stores - 5/5 PSNation - 9.5/10 IGN: 9.0/10 Destructoid - 9/10 Gamerhub.TV - 9/10 Pocketgamer - 9/10 The Sixth Axis: 9/10 Polygon - 9/10 FinancialPost - 9/10 pocketgamer - 9/10 Entertainment Weekly: A- N4G - 8.6/10 GamesRadar - 4.5/5 The Vita Lounge 8.5/10 Playstation Lifestyle - 8.5/10 The Globe and Mail (Canada) - 8/10 Eurogamer - 7 (pfft)

Nuclear Throne is the latest game from Vlambeer, the geniuses/indie darlings behind Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box, and Luftrausers, and it's just come out as an eary access alpha, available from Steam for £10 or from the developers directly for $12.99 (Steam key included). It's due for release on PS4 and Vita once it's done, and the developers will see if they can port to mac (notoriously difficult for games built in game-maker) at a later date. It's a twin-stick shooter roguelikelikelike (think Binding of Isaac with different sized rooms and no keys), but with bullet hell elements, and some Hotline Miami style twitchiness. The idea is simple, kill enemies, pick up bullets, weapons and health to stay alive, and collect the little rods of plutonium they drop in order to level up your character and buy perks between levels. There are a couple of small twists to keep things fresh too, the most notable being you're only allowed to carry two weapons at once, making switching weapons often enough to ensure you don't run out of ammo paramount to success. There are also several different characters to pick from, each with their own unique ability, ranging from an incredibly useful shield, to lowered max HP for increased XP gains and the ability to use "explosive retaliation" (that is, BLOW UP ALL ENEMY CORPSES ON SCREEN). Anyway, the ultimate aim is simple; finish enough levels, and sit the Nuclear Throne*. Easier said than done though, as like any good roguelike, it's harder than trying to explain how to play Crusader Kings II to an infant. A deaf, blind and dumb infant. The pixel art/animation and music are as good as you'd expect from Vlambeer, and likewise the core gameplay doesn't disappoint either. The audio and visual feedback makes all the weapons in the game, (and there are many, many weapons in the game) incredibly satisfying to use, there's a great variety of enemies and bosses to test your mettle against, and well, despite being in alpha and a liiitle bit rough, it already feels like a fairly complete package. Saying that, there's fucktonne of content still in development and being added on a weekly basis: more levels, types of enemies, three characters, and all sorts of secrets and assorted craziness are planned before the game is "out" proper. And if you're not quite convinced yet, check out this giant bomb quick look and marvel at its mutated glory.
You can follow along with development on these streams as well! Main development livestream + gameplay - http://www.twitch.tv/vlambeer (Tuesdays & Thursdays) In-game art (animation, character design, etc) - http://www.twitch.tv/pietpiet Music - http://www.twitch.tv/kozilekmusic Sound design - http://www.twitch.tv/kissa3m0 Promotional artwork - http://www.twitch.tv/justinchans *Not yet implemented in the game.

Look - another game set in a Japanese school!
Mandatory dramatic trailer:
Metacritic 80
Danganronpa is an adventure game set in Hope's Peak Academy, a school with a reputation so good that anyone who graduates from there is said to be set for life. The current year's new students are, as always, a big deal - fourteen of the most prestigious and talented youngsters from their fields, such as the Ultimate Baseball Star, Ultimate Programmer (...) and, er, Ultimate Fanfic Creator.
And you - Makoto Naegi. You are the "Ultimate Lucky Student" who won the fifteenth spot at the school by virtue of winning a raffle for your place. Showing up for your first day you enter the school, but find that everything is not quite as it seems... You find yourself trapped in the school along with the other new students, and are informed that the only way out is to commit the perfect crime - murder a fellow student, and don't get found out.
If you succeed, you're out. If you don't, things might get a little... grisly.
Danganronpa's been described as a mix of the social segments of the recent Persona entries, investigations like Phoenix Wright and storytelling in the mould of Virtue's Last Reward, along with featuring an idiotic animal antagonist to boot. As such spoilers will probably ruin it for everyone so:
USE SPOILER TAGS when discussing the story please!
Also buy from Grainger Games for £27 (Price correct as of 21 March 2014).

Ambition of the Slimes
Price: £4.99
Available on: Switch, Steam, Vita, 3DS
Metacritic: 70%
Ambition of the Slimes is a turn based strategy game with an unusual hook. You play a group of low level Slimes who are extremely vulnerable. You can't really fight. You are weak to any attacks. But you can possess your enemies.
It's an interesting idea with surprising depth. Both the Slimes and enemies have the usual elemental resistances (Fire/Water/Grass) and if you possess an enemy of the same element, it strengthens that elemental type. If you possess an enemy with the opposing element, it weakens both resistances. But it doesn't just end there. There are many different enemies to possess. If a slime takes over a female enemy, she can use her charms to lower a male enemies resistance. Why not possess a merchant and bribe other enemies?
It comes down to an interesting, almost puzzle like approach to stages. A group of low level enemies will be protecting a high level, armoured Knight. How can you distract the low level enemies to get to the knight?
I will admit, I was looking for another SRPG after playing loads of Into the Breach and I stumbled upon this. It's a fiver, so after checking some reviews decided to give it a go. It's very good. It's a neat idea that starts simple but quickly becomes complex with lots of planning required to succeed. And you will need lots of planning: it's not easy. The game can be tough, although never unfairly so and when you make a wrong move, to it learn from it.
Finally, it's a fiver. Anyone with any interest in SRPGs should check it out.

Huge January sale now on, even though it's December!
https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/grid/STORE-MSF75508-JANSALE19/1
EDF 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair £6.49 and probably other stuff as well! I've been getting price alerts from psprices.com all bloody morning.
https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP4293-CUSA03467_00-EARTHDEFENSEFO41

So this is amazing, and it deserves more coverage (in my opinion). They're looking for $30,000 and they've already got over half that within a day. There's no mention of stretch goals yet, personally I'd love to see it come to Vita.
Building on the classic modes everyone has come to know and love, Drift Stage plans to include multiple new game types utilizing modern game design techniques, such as an infinite drift mode incorporating a procedurally generated course with checkpoints, as well as a decal system, allowing you to personalize your car with custom images.Single Race
A conventional single player race against AI opponents. Time Trial
Race against staff ghosts and your personal best as well as your friends' best online leaderboard times. Infinite Drift
Checkpoint style races on a randomly generated track. Daily Challenges
Challenge your friends in a time/score based daily challenge. Career Mode
Choose your racer and follow their story across multiple races. Workshop
Create custom tracks in an in-game editor and customize your cars with decals. Local & Online Multiplayer
Drift Stage features local split screen up to four players, just like the old days, in addition to online racing. There's a playable demo available here and even in the early alpha state, it's hugely enjoyable. The demo even has a photo mode in it already, so it's already way better than Driveclub!

I know this has been out for 6 months already but as it's on PS+ at the moment (EDIT: Not as of 8th May it ain't) it's getting some sporadic discussion across various threads and I reckon it needs a topic of its own. (I have searched but can't find anything.) For those who don't know what it is, gameplay description nicked from Wikipedia below: I'm on my third escape at the moment and I'm really struggling to make sense of the game in my head. I know I'm enjoying it, and I'm very involved in the story and characters now, but it's just like nothing I've played before. In some ways it reminds me of Phoenix Wright (first-person dialogue, reams of text, investigating scenes) but with a lot more logic required. Unfortunately, that's not really my strong point but I'm going to persevere nonetheless. Also, on a related note - is 999 on DS any good? Worth tracking down after I've finished this? Anyway, the main point of this is - if you have a Vita and PS+, download this now. (EDIT: Not free anymore. Buy it instead.)

Coming September 3rd, Velocity 2X is the sequel to Velocity Ultra is the remake to Velocity. If you are unaware of what this is, it's a 2D shoot-em-up crossed with puzzle mechanics. Previous games started out simple, giving you time to learn the basic mechanics, and throughout the game kept layering more and more abilities. I expect more of the glorious same here. 50 Levels, 25 Bonus Missions, lots of challenge. Trailer
GOTY For "Hi folks, I’m just gonna put this out there: Velocity 2X is a game-of-the-year winner." - futurlab "When Futurlab posted Velocity 2X’s release date on the PlayStation Blog at the start of August along with the almost cocksure claim that their title will be a game-of-the-year winner, many (including myself) took this with a pinch of salt. After spending the last month playing this game day-in day-out, I can safely say that they have every right to make that claim. Velocity 2X certainly does feel like a true contender to that title and it is definitely one of the best games I have played on my favourite handheld to date." - The Vita Lounge "Velocity 2X looks and plays like a Game Of The Year candidate" - Brash Games GOTY Against "While we hesitate to call it a game-of-the-year contender, the Vita needs more titles like Velocity 2X, a game that's equally effective when experienced in short bursts on the move, or in the kind of marathon sessions that tablet and smartphones cannot compete with." - Digital Spy Awards Least Disappointing Game 2014 - Chet & Jon Podcast

Spoiler-free zone! Please keep all spoilery content for previous games in the 999/VLR thread
It's also probably worth keeping away from trailers/plot information for this game if you haven't yet played 999/VLR. Going in blind is the best way to experience those games!
Source
Announced at Anime Expo 2015, seemingly out of nowhere. Expected Summer 2016 for Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3DS.
Following Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward, the announcement of the third game in the Zero Escape series is quite a shock. After poor sales of VLR, the series' creator, Kotaro Uchikoshi took to Twitter with a dedicated English-language account to explain the current situation - even looking into Kickstarter, which at the time couldn't be utilised by residents of Japan.
Then, silence; Uchikoshi was working on some other products, including the writing credit for an anime ("Punch Line", which seems to revolve around looking at pants - watch it on Crunchyroll! or, don't), and the Zero Escape trail went quiet.
One day earlier in the year, this happened - a seemingly-random dump of information that was quickly picked apart. A website (4infinity.co) which contained some snippets hidden in its metadata. A website that now links to the Aksys Twitch channel, where the game was announced.
Not much more info to go on, but I'll keep this updated as news rolls in. The only video I could find of the AX reveal is below, but expect a proper trailer soon I guess:
You can watch the entire Aksys AX panel
. What's a Zero Escape?
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward, the first two entries in the Zero Escape series, are visual novel-style room escape adventures*, and are best experienced as spoiler-free as possible. It's generally recommended to play them in order, though I can confirm it's not essential as someone who played VLR first.
Both games begin with a protagonist who awakes to find themselves trapped in an unfamiliar location, wearing a strange watch-like device on their wrist. Progress is broadly split into two parts - Room Escape puzzles and Visual Novel segments. For those who haven't played a Room Escape-style game before - put simply, you're trapped in a room, and must solve puzzles to escape, by hunting for clues and interacting with the environment.
The Visual Novel segments are what really bring the game to life, though - unravelling the mystery of how you came to be trapped in a mysterious location, discovering the other eight people who share your fate, and seeking a way out. Your choices during these segments will decide your fate, potentially that of your companions, and perhaps even six billion others. Buy the previous games in the series
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors: iOS | Nintendo DS [iOS version has redrawn art assets but no puzzle rooms]
Virtue's Last Reward: Nintendo 3DS | Playstation Vita [3DS version has a save bug] Live vicariously through others 999/VLR RLLMUK Megathread [SPOILER HEAVY. You have been warned] *everyone's secret favourite genre

Quick links:
Final Fantasy: [this post] | last post
Final Fantasy II: first post | last post
Final Fantasy III: first post | last post
Final Fantasy IV: first post | last post - FFIV: TAY: first post | last post
Final Fantasy V: first post | last post
Final Fantasy VI: first post | last post
Final Fantasy VII: first post | last post
Final Fantasy VIII: first post | last post
Final Fantasy IX: first post | last post
Final Fantasy X: first post | last post - FFX-2: first post | last post
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Playing Theatrhythm recently has evoked a wave of nostalgia, so I'm starting an epic quest to revisit every Final Fantasy game, starting with the first. The Vita will be my weapon in this journey, and this forum will be my log of events, and my thoughts and opinions as I progress through the series.
I have absolutely no idea how long this will take (probably years), but let's start at the start with...
Final Fantasy
Originally released on the NES in 1987 and so titled because it was to be a near-bankrupt Squaresoft's final game, before it got popular and spawned eleventy-billion sequels.
The original Final Fantasy has been re-released many times. It and Final Fantasy II were 'remade' for the Wonderswan with better graphics; that version was ported to the GBA and PSone, and then it was remade again with higher resolution graphics for the PSP. That's the version I'm playing now. I wish I could do screengrabs of PSP games because it looks incredible. All the sprites, backgrounds and music have been redone, and there's a lovely touch where shadows of clouds pass over the towns.
I played the NES version many years ago, via emulator. I got about half way through before getting lost and giving up. I played it again on GBA in 2003, and completed it that time, but I can't remember much of it.
It starts quite unlike any of the other games, with no fanfare or theatrics. Your four characters are blank slates, to whom you must asign names and jobs, and are then dumped into the game world, just outside of Cornelia city.
I've gone for a Warrior, a Black Mage, a White Mage and a Thief. This should be a balanced enough setup. I've never tried using the Thief before, so I don't know what they can do. Pick a bad team and you're screwed - there's no chance to change them once you begin!
The world is falling apart, the light of the crystals is fading, and only the four warriors of light can restore the light to them. King Cornelia's daughter has been kidnapped by Garland and taken oop north, so I'm sent on a quest to rescue her. As plots go, it's pretty tedious, but hey, it was the eighties...

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2018/03/28/your-playstation-plus-games-for-april-are-mad-max-and-trackmania-turbo/
99 Vidas could be a lot of fun. Also I think that Trackmania is the one with the VR patch, so I may have a look at that...

There's a new indie game coming out next week on Vita that all you zone gaming score attack guys are going to want to check out. Disclaimer. I'm friends with one of the two man development team but I didn't plan on making a thread unless I actually liked the game. Spoilers. I did. The gentleman Barry Island kindly gave me a code for it and I've just started playing. Fuck me it's good.
You play a robot (Mr Robot) in an arena and your job is not to die. You do this by avoiding or killing enemies. You kill enemies by picking up fruit. Fruit explodes when you pick it up and you can do some nice chains for bonus points. One life.
Full honesty here. I was worried about this game. From the videos and screenshots I've seen of it through development I thought it looked like it lacked something. It turns out videos and screenshots do not do it justice. The game looks lovely and razor sharp on the Vita screen. Music and sound design is excellent (Headphones are recommended).
It was a bit confusing to start with since it only had remix mode open and I didn't know why. That appears to be the tutorial and once you play through two levels of that (One to teach dodging and one to teach killing) everything else opens up.
There's a blog post up at Sony
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2014/10/21/arcade-dodge-em-dont-die-mr-robot-hits-ps-vita-month/?adbid=524576735082201088&adbpl=tw&adbpr=36969785&emcid=social_20141021_34130647
http://infinitestategames.com/
I'm trying to find out how much it'll be but not much is what I understand. I'll see if I can find out in the morning.

With the Euro release landing this week (Wednesday for SEN/PSN and Friday for brick-and-mortar retailers) I thought that it might be a good idea to get a thread started in preparation for Persona 4 Golden's release. Oh, and Yasawas and Dandy_Sephy expressed interest in seeing a dedicated thread. Released in 2009 on the PS2, Persona 4 arrived very late on Sony's last-gen console, but it's remained one of the most charming and rewarding JRPGs out there and is one of my all-time favourite games. It's a story that revolves around a group of high-school students in Inaba who stumble across an alternate world inside televisions where dangerous creatures known as Shadows roam. A friendly character within this world tells the students that someone has been kidnapping people and throwing them into TVs, and this provides the setup for most of the rest of the game, as the students set about exploring the TV world in order to rescue people trapped there and perhaps get more clues about the kidnapper and (ultimately) the nature of the TV world.
The beauty about the Persona games – at least, the later ones – is that they are really several games rolled into one. Exploring the TV world forms the core dungeon grind, but the heroes are still only students, and get up to student-y things such as studying for exams, answering quick quizzes in class, hanging out with friends in a sort of dating-sim lite (without all the creepiness), working part-time jobs that help to boost stats and earn money, fishing for things at the river, accepting occasional sidequests from people in Inaba and more besides. Whilst you get to explore various different dungeons in the TV world, Inaba's available locations largely stay the same, and so variety comes from the in-game calendar. On each new day there may be different people in town that you can spend time with, different jobs available, books being released in the bookstore which you can buy and read at home to boost stats, and more besides. The calendar also serves as motivation to rescue people from the TV world before it's too late.
Once you finish your school day and are free to explore the town, you have the option of entering the TV world through a large flatscreen in a local department store, which is the only way to enter dungeons and battle through them to save victims. The dungeon design is perhaps one of my favourite things about later Persona games, since each one is made up of several "floors", with the dungeon getting progressively harder from floor to floor, culminating in a boss battle on the final floor. It gives players a nice way of knowing if they're out of their depth and need to step back a few floors before progressing. Battles aren't random but are triggered in a stealth-lite format; if a Shadow spots you a "!" will appear above them and they'll give chase; if they strike you they will gain a free turn at the start of the battle; however, if you strike them without them noticing, your party gets the opening strike. The battles require you to take advantage of elemental strengths and weaknesses; the eponymous Persona that the students eventually gain are demons that can be summoned in battle and offer a selection of skills; buffs, nerfs, physical and elemental attacks, healing, etc. However, each persona can also be strong and weak against certain elements. If an elemental weakness is exposed on either a player or an enemy, a free turn is granted to whoever exposed the weakness. Therefore, a player who knows certain weaknesses in advance can exploit them one after the other with successive turns, knocking down enemies and potentially earning the chance to do a powerful "all-out attack" if all enemies are downed.
In having such a satisfying combat system, giving the player plenty to do outside of the dungeon, and designing each dungeon to get progressively more challenging as the player escalates, it nearly always feels rewarding to play. There are a few difficulty spikes with certain bosses, but things only really get hard if you deliberately rush through dungeons and avoid encounters. Reading back through what I've written it sounds a bit like a review but I really just wanted to provide a primer for people who are new to Persona and want to know what all the fuss is about. If anyone wants to add anything I've missed, feel free. I should just stress that there may be some details I've missed and there may still be bits that will be confusing to newcomers when they get their hands on the game, so I hope that we can get some good discussion going between new and experienced players. I was impatient and ended up importing the US version (and I know others did as well) but if enough people are getting into this for the first time I'll probably start a new game with you all.
PS EU Blog: A beginner's guide to Persona 4

Voting is closed as at 00:00 27-02-2017 - any changes or additions to votes from now will not be counted.
It's that time of year again! A little bit earlier than usual, as I realised I won't be free at the end of February, and I still want to give you all a whole month to vote.
This year's awards are going to be slighter than previous ones - which will be good news for those of you who don't enjoy my sparkling wit, or those who don't enjoy their awards ceremonies ending halfway through the year - as I have a fair amount of stuff going on in my life at the moment and so am reducing my time spent on fun things like this. Also, I played fewer games from 2016 than from previous years (limiting myself to four purchases in the year certainly helped there), so I'd have less to say anyway.
What this effectively means is that this year will have:
fewer categories to vote for
fewer 'highlights' in the results thread - by and large the games outside of top 20s will just be listed, with maybe the occasional exceptional game that I want to flag up
fewer criticisms in the results thread - my limited purchasing last year meant I largely avoided games I didn't anticipate enjoying, and I'm not in the habit of criticising games I've not played
So, please temper/raise your expectations as appropriate.
The rules:
one forumite, one vote. If you vote twice I will invalidate your results. If you need to amend your votes during the voting period, edit your original post!
vote for your preferences, not to meet critical consensus: it doesn't matter if you don't think your favourite game of the year was the best game of the year - if it's your favourite, it's your favourite, and you should put in in top place
only games released in 2016 are eligible. You may include games that were previously released in a different territory or for a different system
major expansions and remakes are also eligible
episodic and early access games can be voted for if they either initially launched or finished within 2016
you don't have to vote in all categories, and you don't have to fill all categories - if you only think six games are worthy of entry into the game of the year list, only vote for six games!
voting closes at the end of 26 February; that is to say 00:00 on 27 February. Any submissions or edits made after that point will not be considered towards the results
comments are allowed, and indeed encouraged: just please put them in speech marks on the line below the vote you're commenting on, so that it's easy for me to separate them from the actual votes!
Please use the voting template below when submitting your results
Voting template:
Game of the Year
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20.
Soundtrack of the Year
S1.
S2.
S3.
Visuals of the Year
V1.
V2.
V3.
Writing of the Year
W1.
W2.
W3.

Yet another HD port, but wait! Odin Sphere is one of the most gorgeous games ever made, and Atlus and Vanillaware are bringing it to PS3, PS4 and Vita in 2016! They're promising enhanced graphics, tweaks and new bosses.
Looking at the official site, it seems an art book is also coming.

Announced on the PS Blog, the game follows on from The Age of Demons which is also included, new story should be a similar length to AoD. Cross save and play, you'll be able to transfer your AoD saves to both versions.
No word on cross buy but hopefully they'll be at least some sort of bundle, never got around to buying AoD but will be getting this.